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Remove the autofail from Advanced and Elite queues

supergirl1611supergirl1611 Member Posts: 809 Arc User
As the title says remove the dam autofails from these queues. I am geared to run these missions, i can handle myself in these missions, i am part of several STF channels, but sometimes at certain times when i want to rotate through my 14 toons to farm a certain mission for some R&D materials its not always possible to get a premade team together for 14 runs in a row.

Just remove this dam feature, you should have just introduced a reward reduction for failing the optional and allow players to complete the mission at a reduced reward. say 25%

---or---

Just remove public queues,

Stupid idea to begin with. No wonder public queues are on life support at present, why even try to pug when the mission could fail within a min or less and you get left with time out penalty.
Post edited by supergirl1611 on
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    killergillkillergill Member Posts: 12 Arc User
    edited March 2015
    Auto fail conditions should be removed from Advance missions to bring them in line to what the old elite was(Which dev's claimed they would be). But, elite missions should be harder and auto fail conditions in these missions are fine.

    Elites should not be farmable by 10+ alts in a row like advance is.
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    seriousdaveseriousdave Member Posts: 2,777 Arc User
    edited March 2015
    You're quite late for that train, you know that?

    That horse is almost as dead beat as Thovan Khev by now.
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    berginsbergins Member Posts: 3,453 Arc User
    edited March 2015
    I suppose the only reason this isn't a FCT yet is because the Devs have refused to wiegh in on it.

    I agree, the Autofail-Optionals in Advanced queues are a bit much, but leave them alone in Elite. If you can PUG an Elite queue, you are truly... Elite.
    "Logic is a little tweeting bird chirping in a meadow. Logic is a wreath of pretty flowers which smell BAD." - Spock
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    jellico1jellico1 Member Posts: 2,719
    edited March 2015
    Remove the fail condititions and timers

    Add a bonus to make the optionals

    That's the way it should be
    Jellico....Engineer ground.....Da'val Romulan space Sci
    Saphire.. Science ground......Ko'el Romulan space Tac
    Leva........Tactical ground.....Koj Romulan space Eng

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    peterconnorfirstpeterconnorfirst Member Posts: 6,225 Arc User
    edited March 2015
    You're quite late for that train, you know that?

    That horse is almost as dead beat as Thovan Khev by now.

    It is but I think its fair to have at least 1 of such a thread running all the time until Cryptics keeps his promise and makes new Advanced = Old Elite. We are getting there but we are not quiet there yet.

    I agree with the OP simply because most fail conditions don’t provide me with the challenge they where advertised with.

    They reach from not even be recognizable in good teams to unbeatable obstacles in bad teams.

    If I want to experience a challenge in them I’d need to put together a discrete team of good and bad players where my influence on the combined team effort grant’s me a feeling of accomplishment to have saved the mission right on time.

    I end up in such a team on every 10th run at best and on the rest of the time they either hinder me to play or put me to sleep.
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    captainkroncaptainkron Member Posts: 123 Arc User
    edited March 2015
    The lame part is the 10 marks whether you fail in seconds or at the end with the Boss just missing the timer. :? Heck its better to fail in seconds get 10 marks move on to next toon. Then spend more time only to get same pay out. On a plus note dead Queues don't have as many AFKs.

    Comes to mind the saying "Jumped the Shark" Much! :rolleyes:

    Note: I still enjoy the content and art work, good job on that front. :)
    CibJ7qu.jpg?1
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    alex284alex284 Member Posts: 366 Arc User
    edited March 2015
    So the game should be changed to cater to people with 14 alts who want to farm a mission?

    PVE content that can't be failed is just busy work. The conditions are not hard to meet for the most part if people have halfway decent builds and know the missions.
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    jellico1jellico1 Member Posts: 2,719
    edited March 2015
    alex284 wrote: »
    So the game should be changed to cater to people with 14 alts who want to farm a mission?

    PVE content that can't be failed is just busy work. The conditions are not hard to meet for the most part if people have halfway decent builds and know the missions.


    Go pug that 10x and report back to us
    Jellico....Engineer ground.....Da'val Romulan space Sci
    Saphire.. Science ground......Ko'el Romulan space Tac
    Leva........Tactical ground.....Koj Romulan space Eng

    JJ-Verse will never be Canon or considered Lore...It will always be JJ-Verse
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    timelord79timelord79 Member Posts: 1,852 Arc User
    edited March 2015
    Personally I am fine with the fail conditions.

    In my mind there is this progression of difficulties:

    Normal > Normal/Optional > Advanced > Advanced/Optional > Elte > Elite/Optional

    If Cryptic ever gives in and removes the fail condition for not being able to do "Normal/Option plus harder enemies" (which is just another description of Advanced) then the base reward for advanced should be lower than a Normal/Optional run, maybe even lower than Normal.
    Every optional, and there should be multiple of them, would up the reward to current advanced levels including the BNPs and rare R&D mats.
    11750640_1051211588222593_450219911807924697_n.jpg
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    virusdancervirusdancer Member Posts: 18,687 Arc User
    edited March 2015
    I say prevent the autofails from queuing up for Advanced or Elite.
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    thatcursedwolfthatcursedwolf Member Posts: 1,617 Arc User
    edited March 2015
    Advanced was supposed to be old Elite, so the autofail mandatory optionals need to go from that one.

    To keep the Elite happy Elite should have autofail mandatory optionals out the wazoo so those in certain channels can feel vastly superior to the Plebeians who dare try to pug in their difficulty.
    This is my Risian Corvette. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
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    rmy1081rmy1081 Member Posts: 2,840 Arc User
    edited March 2015
    I say prevent the autofails from queuing up for Advanced or Elite.

    there we go :)

    but on a serious note to the op...REALLY?
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    virusdancervirusdancer Member Posts: 18,687 Arc User
    edited March 2015
    Advanced was supposed to be old Elite, so the autofail mandatory optionals need to go from that one.

    http://www.arcgames.com/en/games/star-trek-online/news/detail/7006643-queue-revamp
    Advanced Mode – Formerly Known as Elite

    What you used to refer to as Elite in our queued events and STFs is now known as Advanced. In the new Advanced versions of the queues you will see a similar level of challenge in the enemies that you are used to when the queues were labeled Elite. In addition, players with Captains under max level will find themselves bolstered up to level 60, the same level as their opponents. You won’t gain seats or powers you didn’t have, but your damage and other numerical values for your Captain and ship will be scaled up to match what you would do at this higher level.

    Advanced does offer some new challenges as well. Many objectives that were optional in Normal mode are now required in Advanced mode. We hope you were paying attention during your playthroughs of Normal before jumping into Advanced. Beginning with the release of Delta Rising, failure to complete these formerly optional objectives will result in the immediate failure of the mission. Upon failure, you will receive a portion of the rewards that you would have received for completing the mission, so you still are rewarded for your time spent in the event.

    Advanced mode also brings with it one or more new optional objectives as well. This may be an objective to complete the mission in set amount of time, or some other goal that can be achieved. Failure to do these optional mission objectives will simply prevent you from getting the bonus rewards for Advanced mode, and will not result in failure of the mission.

    Successfully completing an Advanced version of an event will reward you with even more Marks than Normal as well as Dilithium Ore. In addition, you will receive a package of Advanced Queue R&D materials, with a chance at getting some of the highly sought after Very Rare R&D materials.
    rmy1081 wrote: »
    I say prevent the autofails from queuing up for Advanced or Elite.

    there we go :)

    but on a serious note to the op...REALLY?

    Meh, it was serious. If folks were to look at themselves, picture a team with four others like them, would they stand a chance in Hell of completing the run? Whether it's a build that struggles in normal episodes/missions or having no clue how to do the queue...many folks out there queue to fail.
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    thatcursedwolfthatcursedwolf Member Posts: 1,617 Arc User
    edited March 2015

    Conflicting statements.

    "What you used to refer to as Elite in our queued events and STFs is now known as Advanced."

    "Advanced does offer some new challenges as well. Many objectives that were optional in Normal mode are now required in Advanced mode."

    The first does not allow the second.

    Mandatory optionals were not part of what we used to call Elite.

    Advanced is something completely new and should not have referenced old Elite.

    "What you used to refer as Dogs in our queued events and STF are now known as Cats." is what they've effectively said.

    "Advanced is like what you used to refer to as elite but more troll friendly." is what they should have said.
    This is my Risian Corvette. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
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    virusdancervirusdancer Member Posts: 18,687 Arc User
    edited March 2015
    Conflicting statements.

    "What you used to refer to as Elite in our queued events and STFs is now known as Advanced."

    "Advanced does offer some new challenges as well. Many objectives that were optional in Normal mode are now required in Advanced mode."

    The first does not allow the second.

    Mandatory optionals were not part of what we used to call Elite.

    Advanced is something completely new and should not have referenced old Elite.

    "What you used to refer as Dogs in our queued events and STF are now known as Cats." is what they've effectively said.

    "Advanced is like what you used to refer to as elite but more troll friendly." is what they should have said.

    What used to be called Elite is no longer what Elite is in the game...the step after Normal, which used to be Elite is now Advanced...here are some additional changes...

    edit: Just noticed the edit bit, about ti being more "troll friendly"...and well, yeah - that would be one of the reasons, imho, that channel queues are bumping while public queues aren't. Though, imho, that's not a Cryptic problem...that's a we need an asteroid to hit the planet and wipe the species out sort of problem.
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    thatcursedwolfthatcursedwolf Member Posts: 1,617 Arc User
    edited March 2015
    What used to be called Elite is no longer what Elite is in the game...the step after Normal, which used to be Elite is now Advanced...here are some additional changes...

    Going that route what we used to call Elite is now Normal.
    This is my Risian Corvette. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
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    virusdancervirusdancer Member Posts: 18,687 Arc User
    edited March 2015
    Going that route what we used to call Elite is now Normal.

    Depending on the queue, there was a chance to fail things before Delta Rising. One could even fail in Normal. I usually had more failed runs in Normals than I did in Elites.

    Would be interesting to have a list comprised of the Mandatory/Optional in the various queues from before DR and what they are now...so folks could see the actual difference. There are also a bunch of folks that have complained about an Optional being a Mandatory when it is still an Optional.

    It's not a list that I could put together by any means...had a Crystalline Advanced fail the other day, and I had no clue that it was even possible for that one to fail...lol. It was a trip...a complete lolwut moment.
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    blakes7tvseriesblakes7tvseries Member Posts: 704 Arc User
    edited March 2015
    This is way over due.
    This also the reason why many people left the game.
    download.jpg
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    shandypandyshandypandy Member Posts: 632 Arc User
    edited March 2015
    I do wish people would stop referring to 'mandatory optionals', that doesn't make sense and they don't exist.

    There are mandatory completion requirements in advanced PvE missions, and then there are optional goals also. The optional goals are marked as such. Mandatory objectives are not.
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    peterconnorfirstpeterconnorfirst Member Posts: 6,225 Arc User
    edited March 2015
    I do wish people would stop referring to 'mandatory optionals', that doesn't make sense and they don't exist.

    You are right but that may be hard to implement because former optionals were turned into mandatories and then back to optionals while other former optionals still remain mandatories in addition to some new optionals which of course are still optionals but may yet be turned into mandatories later on. :o
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    felisean wrote: »
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    nimbullnimbull Member Posts: 1,564 Arc User
    edited March 2015
    I'm fine with elites having the auto-fail. That is what elite is for. Advanced I can agree that all of the autofails that weren't present in the original elites before DR should be removed.
    Green people don't have to be.... little.
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    virusdancervirusdancer Member Posts: 18,687 Arc User
    edited March 2015
    You are right but that may be hard to implement because former optionals were turned into mandatories and then back to optionals while other former optionals still remain mandatories in addition to some new optionals which of course are still optionals but may yet be turned into mandatories later on. :o

    The best part (not really), imho, about the various changes is one can't hit up the Release Notes to see what happened. Hell, there aren't even Release Notes listed for Delta Rising. Makes it a massive PITA to try to track what's been going on in the game...and it's been like that for a wee while now. Stuff might get listed on Tribble, but not Holodeck, even though it goes to Holodeck. Stuff might not be listed on either even though it's obviously happened. It's annoying, imho...
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    timelord79timelord79 Member Posts: 1,852 Arc User
    edited March 2015
    Ok, but then the fail options in normal mode should also return if they were present like in Khitomer Space. ;)

    Devs and most players obviously have a difference in understanding what "former Elite = Advanced" means.

    The current Advanced replaced the former Elite with the enemies providing about the same challenge in difficulty BUT adjusted to level 60 Mk XIV gear.
    So a level 50 with Mk XII gear jumping into an Advanced queue will struggle more than a maxed out toon obviously.

    Once the team fulfills the demands of the adjusted difficulty and knows the mission from normal well enough, failing the new mandatories should not even be in question.
    11750640_1051211588222593_450219911807924697_n.jpg
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    virusdancervirusdancer Member Posts: 18,687 Arc User
    edited March 2015
    timelord79 wrote: »
    Ok, but then the fail options in normal mode should also return if they were present like in Khitomer Space. ;)

    Devs and most players obviously have a difference in understanding what "former Elite = Advanced" means.

    The current Advanced replaced the former Elite with the enemies providing about the same challenge in difficulty BUT adjusted to level 60 Mk XIV gear.
    So a level 50 with Mk XII gear jumping into an Advanced queue will struggle more than a maxed out toon obviously.

    Once the team fulfills the demands of the adjusted difficulty and knows the mission from normal well enough, failing the new mandatories should not even be in question.

    But that's not true in the least. Even the Elites aren't adjusted for 60s in Mk XIV gear. A 60 with VR Mk XI gear is massively overkill for Advanced. The requirements for an Advanced aren't even 1/20th of the potential in the game.

    A T5 9 console boat with mission rewards and random loot drops is overkill for Advanced content.

    The DPS requirement going from pre-DR Elite to DR Advanced is ~1-2k additional DPS.

    Just cause there are folks out there doing 30k, 60k, 90k+ doesn't meant that's what's required to do an Advanced. Hell, for an ISA...the whole team doesn't even need 30k to get the Optional. If five folks show up doing 1-2k DPS though, yeah - they're going to have problems. They would have had problems doing that in an Elite pre-DR as well. Folks showing up to fail are going to make it more likely that things will fail...it doesn't take much to avoid that.
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    supergirl1611supergirl1611 Member Posts: 809 Arc User
    edited March 2015
    Tbf I was a bit miffed when posting this after running bug hunt elite and it failing due to alarm bug not tagged. Took me by surprise as this Dante happened before. Guess they added this Thursday
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    virusdancervirusdancer Member Posts: 18,687 Arc User
    edited March 2015
    Tbf I was a bit miffed when posting this after running bug hunt elite and it failing due to alarm bug not tagged. Took me by surprise as this Dante happened before. Guess they added this Thursday

    Aye, Thursday January 29th...I believe it was. Could be wrong, as I mentioned - release notes have been TRIBBLE for some time. I'm going to see if I can't actually hunt (no pun) this one down...I freaking hate how bad the release notes have gotten. Nope, it was before then - cause that was just the adjustment to health, no? Even in Nov there was a discussion about failing BH because of the Alarm bugs. Hrmm, even at the start of Nov there was. It's a trip reading all these things where folks reference changes, going to the notes that should reflect those mentioned changes, and there's nothing there. Hell, on Nov 5th there was a thread discussing the nerfing of the Advanced and them being easier...but there are no patch notes for it. :(
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    sheldonlcoopersheldonlcooper Member Posts: 4,042 Arc User
    edited March 2015
    The ship has sailed on this. Cryptic has weathered the storm. Dare I paddle the metaphor further?

    There is one reason why they won't be removed: argonite gas.

    The most failed missions = borg disconnected and azure nebula. The reward - argonite gas.

    The artificially created scarcity of argonite drives sales of R&D packs. It's that simple.
    Captain Jean-Luc Picard: "We think we've come so far. Torture of heretics, burning of witches, it's all ancient history. Then - before you can blink an eye - suddenly it threatens to start all over again."

    "With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."

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    knuhteb5knuhteb5 Member Posts: 1,831 Arc User
    edited March 2015
    As the title says remove the dam autofails from these queues. I am geared to run these missions, i can handle myself in these missions, i am part of several STF channels, but sometimes at certain times when i want to rotate through my 14 toons to farm a certain mission for some R&D materials its not always possible to get a premade team together for 14 runs in a row.

    Just remove this dam feature, you should have just introduced a reward reduction for failing the optional and allow players to complete the mission at a reduced reward. say 25%

    ---or---

    Just remove public queues,

    Stupid idea to begin with. No wonder public queues are on life support at present, why even try to pug when the mission could fail within a min or less and you get left with time out penalty.

    I support removing the autofails for advanced as well since advanced is supposed to be the old elite. A lot of other players support this as well, but the developers don't care and won't communicate a response. Then the devs wonder why the disconnect between the players and the devs grows larger and larger.
    aGHGQIKr41KNi.gif
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    virusdancervirusdancer Member Posts: 18,687 Arc User
    edited March 2015
    Hrmm, found some stuff mentioned outside the notes...though some of it might deal more with rewards than difficulty.

    09-19-2014
    stodecker wrote: »
    For what it's worth:

    We are fully cognizant that there will be complaints that it's too hard. We have no intention of going back on Elite and making it easier to achieve. This is the brass ring for you all to aspire to.

    If anything our worry is that one or two might be too easy compared to the rest. We'll take steps to remedy those situations asap.
    stodecker wrote: »
    Normal is level 50-60, with enemies and players scaled to level 50 in terms of "sidekicking".

    Advanced is level 50-60, with enemies and players scaled up to level 60 in terms of "sidekicking", and enemies all use the Advanced difficulty adjustments.

    Elite is level 60 only, and all enemies use the Elite difficulty adjustments.

    10-15-2014
    Welcome to Delta Rising. A lot has changed in the game difficulty, and we are looking for your feedback.

    Delta Rising was a massive addition, and we anticipate that we will need to make adjustments. So over the next few weeks expect changes in the baseline difficulty, advanced difficulty, and elite difficulty - and also expect rewards to change as we gather more metrics on play-times and success rates.

    Our goal was to make basic difficulty and the story content something everyone can play - even with a standard T5 ship. Levels 1-50 are generally pretty easy at basic difficulty, so we felt 51-60 should step things up a bit. Although we expect 51-60 accessible everyone, those in T5 ships and non-upgraded gear should to start to feel a definite challenge as they approach level 60. We expect Advanced to be for more skilled players and those who have invested in the game (ships and gear). And we expect Elite to be for the best of the best. We don't expect most players to succeed on elite difficulty.

    If I were to guess, I would expect basic to get some minor tuning, Advanced to get a little easier and Elite to get a lot harder - and rewards, like dilithium rewards, could potentially go up across queues once we are sure we are hitting the right mark. But this is just my guess at this time.

    Until then, let us know your thoughts here, and we will take your feedback into consideration.


    Thanks, and we hope you enjoy Delta Rising.

    LLAP

    10-15-2014
    We did warn you that Elite is not for everyone. Its pretty extreme. Seriously, most players should not be able to do it.

    But please note, that have already had some pretty well organized fleets blazing through Elite with apparent ease. It kinda blows me away honestly. We have a lot of diversity on skill in STO, so finding the right balance point may take time. We want to make a real challenge for our top players, so if players are succeeding easily (and they are), expect it to probably get harder.

    11-04-2014
    As part of the recent Delta Rising expansion released for Star Trek Online, PvE queues underwent a major overhaul to follow a new difficulty schema – providing for interesting challenges as players advanced to the new maximum rank of Fleet Admiral. Unfortunately, our first attempts at updating difficulty have not been universally successful and as a result we will be working towards bringing the challenge of these queues in line with where we think they should be.

    The key change in difficulty to the PvE queues was the addition of failure conditions for Advanced and Elite difficulties. Since the release of Delta Rising, we’ve been monitoring several key metrics regarding player experiences in STO, including player success rates for each queue. Adding failure conditions to queues was meant to add a challenge to them and so no advanced or elite queues should have a 100% success rate. At the same time, however, we don’t expect any queue to have a success rate that is so low that players who are appropriately geared will never experience a successful run.

    We have already started making adjustments to content throughout STO in order to tune difficulty. Most recently there was an update to the modifiers applied to critter health and damage output for advance difficulty (not just for queues but also for solo content played with the difficulty slider set to this value). There are more, similar changes planned that will continue to tune these critter modifiers. Additionally, PvE queues will be evaluated on a per queue basis and potentially have their mission requirements, critter spawns or other aspects updated to help tune their specific difficulties.

    This will be an ongoing process – one that we hope we can resolve quickly but we think it is much more important to have our changes be the right ones. We will continue to communicate with the players about all these updates as they occur.

    Charles Gray
    Lead Content Designer
    Star Trek Online
    Shortly after launch of Delta Rising, I made a post asking for your input on balance for levels 51-60 balance. I wanted to take a moment and thank everyone for their input. Raising the level cap with 3 difficulty settings is a big task. The difference in skill and gear from one player to another can be very large, so getting the balance right can be a challenge.

    A little over a week or so ago, we made some changes to difficulty. Based on additional feedback, as well as continuing data mining, we are in the process of making another pass. We will be noticeably reducing the HP and shields of all space critters from levels 51-60. This change will have more of an effect at level 60 than 51. This change will affect Basic and Advanced difficulty, but not affect Elite Difficulty.

    Be sure to watch for additional posts from the devs on related changes. In relation to game difficulty, keep an eye out for posts on PvE queue difficulty as well as a post on changes to changes to rewards. Please focus your responses on the appropriate thread.



    LLAP

    Al “Captain Geko” Rivera

    11-20-2014
    I posted a couple of weeks ago about planned changes we are making to both rewards throughout the game and the difficulty of PvE queues. What follows is a progress report of how those updates are coming along and what updates you can expect in the near future. As mentioned previously, this is an ongoing effort to improve STO and these first updates are not the entirety of what will be done.


    Already Live:

    Increased Dilithium Rewards

    As part of the November 6th, 2014 update, dilithium rewards were increased in PvE queues to be 360/720/1440 dilithium for successful completion of normal/advanced/elite respectively. Additionally, dilithium rewards for all adventure and battle zones were increased by 50%.


    Live Today:

    New Fleet Action Rewards

    Gorn Minefield, Starbase 24, Breaking the Planet, The Big Dig and Klingon Scout Force have all had their rewards updated. Upon successfully completing any of these fleet actions, all participants will be rewarded with 720 Dilithium, 20 Fleet Marks, 1 Normal Queue R&D Material Reward Package, Skill Points and Expertise, in addition to one piece of gear with rarity based upon their personal performance.

    Battle of Korfez PvE Queue

    The Battle of Korfez PvE queue now has a failure reward for completing the first challenge (“Defeat Vaadwaur Task Force”) but failing to complete the entire mission (“Defeat V.S.W. Implacable and Stop Trilithium Torpedoes”). The failure reward for this PvE queue is your choice of 10 Fleet or Delta Marks.


    Federation/Klingon Starbase Incursion PvE Queues

    The rewards for both versions of Starbase Incursion have been reduced after discovering that there was legacy data giving out rewards twice upon completing the queue. These rewards have been returned to their original and intended values.

    Coming Soon:

    Increased Delta Quadrant Sector Patrols Rewards

    All of the sector patrols in the Syllerran and Devore Sectors that were released as part of Delta Rising have had their skill point rewards doubled. Additionally, the Parein System patrol “Legacies” now rewards a random piece of level-appropriate gear in addition to its other rewards, as the mission requires you to disable all enemy ships and thus you will not be getting loot drops from critter kills.

    The Breach and Storming the Spire PvE Queues

    Both The Breach and Storming the Spire will now offer Delta Marks as a choice for reward upon completing the mission. This includes both success and failure rewards and all difficulty versions of these two queues.


    Charles Gray
    Lead Content Designer
    Star Trek Online

    01-13-2015
    Another round of PvE queue updates have been made and are making their way to Tribble for extra testing. As mentioned previously, this is an ongoing effort to improve STO and this update (and those that came before) are not the entirety of what will be done.

    New to Tribble this week:

    No Win Scenario

    The No Win Scenario, both Starfleet and Klingon versions, has been removed from the PvE queue list. With the increase in maximum player level from 50 to 60, we no longer feel this queue is accomplishing its job of providing an intense escalating challenge where players really have to struggle to advance to the later waves. We do have plans to revisit this queue in the near future and rebuild it so it can continue to live up to its name.


    Mine Trap

    The rewards for successfully completing this PvE queue have been increased by an additional 50% above what they have been previously. Additionally, the failure rewards have been increased by an additional 150% above their existing rewards.


    Nukara Prime: Transdimensional Tactics

    The rewards for successfully completing the Advanced and Elite versions of this PvE queue have been increased by an additional 100% above what they have been previously (the Normal version’s success rewards remain unchanged). Additionally, the failure rewards for the Normal version of this PvE queue have been increased by an additional 50% above their existing rewards (the Advanced and Elite versions’ failure rewards remain unchanged).


    Vault Shuttle Event

    We have fixed a bug that was preventing players from accessing the Advanced version of this queue (using the PvE queue window to enter the Advanced version would take you to the Normal version). Additionally, the rewards for successfully completing this PvE queue have been increased by an additional 150% above the existing rewards.


    NPC Hitpoint / Shield Bonus Scaling Changes (Advanced and Elite difficulties only)


    Shortly after the launch of Delta Rising, we noticed the effects of what turned out to be a mathematical error in the way multiple Hitpoint and Shield buffing passive powers were interacting with one another. This interaction was occurring only on a small number of NPCs which met both of the following criteria:
    - Have a passive Hitpoint and/or Shield Buff that increases these pools above what an NPC of their Rank would usually have.
    - Are found on Advanced and/or Elite Difficulty maps.

    NPCs meeting both of the above criteria do not scale at the same rate as the rest of the NPCs in the game. These NPCs are mainly the "boss type" NPCs seen in queues, but this change, because of how it interacts with the aforementioned calculations, will effect different NPCs to different extremes.

    It will NOT change the Hitpoint/Shield values on any NPC encountered on a Normal Difficulty map. The vast majority of NPCs encountered on Advanced and Elite Difficulty will also see no change, as they do not rely upon additional Hitpoint/Shield boosts other than those supplied by the Difficulty setting.

    A few examples of specific high-hitpoint Boss NPCs that will be affected are:
    - Tholian Project Leader (Transdimensional Tactics)
    - The Spawnmother (Bug Hunt)
    - The Borg Queen (Into the Hive, both Space and Ground)
    - VSW Implacable (Battle of Korfez)

    (It is worth noting that this will not affect the Crystalline Entity, as her scaling is handled in a different manner.)

    One of the most widespread issues that this will resolve, is that NPCs on the Ground that rely upon a hitpoint boost to offset a lack of shields (Undine, Bluegills, Salt Vampires, etc.) will see an across-the-board increase in their health after this change. Although this will end up appearing as a 33-50% increase in maximum hitpoints for these types of enemies on Advanced and Elite difficulty, it will actually bring them in line with every other NPC in the game. We will be monitoring this particular aspect of the changes to see if it must be tuned separately.

    For those that are interested, I’ve included a section about the math involved in this change below (titled “The Math”).


    Increase to Skillpoints and Expertise from NPC Kills Base on Difficulty Modifier

    We will also be increasing the SP and Expertise bonus for NPCs killed in Advanced and Elite mode. Numeric rewards in Advanced difficulty will increase from 125% to 150%, while in Elite difficulty they will increase from 200% to 250%.


    Charles Gray & Jeremy Randall
    Lead Content Designer, Systems Designer
    Star Trek Online



    The Math

    For clarity's sake, we'll share the full mathematical issue, and its effects. For the purpose of this demonstration, let's use simplified numbers to illustrate the point of how this hitpoint buff interacts with the Difficulty Scaling buffs, and the NPC's base hitpoints (please note these are example values for simplicity, and not the true values in the game).

    Base Hitpoints Value = 1
    Elite Difficulty Hitpoints Modifier = 3

    So here is a simple formula on how a typical NPC would scale:

    1 * 3 = 3

    So typical critters in Elite mode has 3x as many HP as in Basic mode. Now let's take the Tholian Project Leader as an example. This boss NPC is found in the queue map "Transdimensional Tactics" which can be played at Advanced and Elite setting, and he relies upon a passive Hitpoint Buff. The passive hitpoint buff on this particular NPC has a very high value.

    Tholian Project Leader Passive Hitpoint Buff Modifier = 12

    Under the existing system, as it currently sits on Holodeck, these figures interact incorrectly. Their mathematical relationship could be presented as:

    1 * (3 + 12) = 15

    This results in the final Hitpoint value on Elite being far lower proportionally than other NPCs. By design, the equation was expected to be presented as:

    (1 * 12) * 3 = 36

    As you can see, the difference can be fairly drastic. This particular NPC possesses the highest Hitpoint Buff of any NPC in the entire game and is an extreme example. Most Boss NPCs have buff magnitudes in the 1-5 range, rather than being in the ~12 neighborhood.

    01-22-2015
    Another round of PvE queue updates have been made and are making their way to Tribble for extra testing. This particular batch of updates has focused on increasing difficulty for queues that are being completed at a higher rate than expected and decreasing rewards for queues that have been over-rewarding as compared to the reward levels we have established across all PvE queues. We expect that these will be the only queues changed in such ways during this first pass of updates. As mentioned previously, this is an ongoing effort to improve STO and this update (and those that came before) are not the entirety of what will be done.

    New to Tribble this week:

    Bug Hunt

    The rewards for successfully completing the Normal difficulty version of this PvE queue have been increased by an additional 25% above what they have been previously, while the rewards for successfully completing the Advanced difficulty version have been increased by an additional 50% and the rewards for successfully completing the Elite difficulty version have been increased by 75%.

    The Cure Applied

    The I.K.S. Kang has had its hull, shields and damage bonuses for Advanced difficulty reduced by half. The mark rewards for successfully completing the optional objective in Normal difficulty have been reduced from 25 marks to 15 marks. The optional objective in Normal difficulty has been updated for completing the queue in 15 minutes to completing the queue in 4 minutes or less. The objective in Advanced difficulty requiring that players complete the queue in 15 minutes or less has been updated to requires players to complete the queue in 9 minutes or less.

    Crystalline Catastrophe

    The base mark rewards for successfully completing Normal difficulty have been decreased from 40 to 30 marks and for successfully completing Advanced difficulty have been decreased from 70 to 60 marks. Additionally, the failure rewards for Advanced difficulty have been increased from 5 to 10 marks. The optional objective in Advanced difficulty has been updated from completing the queue in 10.5 minutes to completing the queue in 5 minutes or less. The optional objective in Normal difficulty and the objective in Advanced difficulty requiring that no more than 50% of players die during the Crystalline Entity’s pulse power, now requires that no more than 30% of players die during this same phase. The Crystalline Entity’s pulse power no longer has a safe inner distance and this pulse no longer damages or destroys Crystalline Fragments (large or small).

    Colony Invasion

    The base mark rewards for successfully completing this PvE queue have been decreased from 40 to 30 marks.

    Fleet Alert

    The mark rewards for completing waves one and two have been decreased from 10 to 5 marks. The mark rewards for completing wave five has been decreased from 18 to 15. The mark rewards for completing waves three and four remain unchanged at 10 marks.


    Available on Tribble next week:

    Atmosphere Assault

    The rewards for successfully completing the Normal difficulty version of this PvE queue have been increased by an additional 250% above what they have been previously while the rewards for successfully completing the Advanced difficulty version have been increased by an additional 400% above what they have been previously. Additionally, the Elachi Walkers have had their hull and shields reduced.


    Charles Gray
    Lead Content Designer
    Star Trek Online
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